If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Just West of Beantown, though nobody from Beantown actually calls it "Beantown."

Posts

1,229

Craigslist Killer

I'm surprised nobody's posted about this yet...

JuLissa Brisman was found dead in the Marriott Copley Hotel in Boston. Original reports stated that she had been stabbed, then it was confirmed that she was bound and shot three times after an apparent violent struggle. All the police had to go on initially was a surveillance photo of a blond guy in the hotel at the time.

Then they linked this murder to a robbery that happened at the Westin Copley Hotel four days earlier. The same guy was in a surveillance photo from that hotel, right next door to the Marriott.

After further investigation, they learned that both victims had placed ads on Craigslist for "Massage services."

Using subpoenas to Craigslist and ISPs, they were able to track down communications with the victims, leading them to Philip Markoff, A Boston University Medical School student.

Markoff and hid friends and family immediately began singing "mistaken identity." At arraignment, the ADA laid out the evidence they found during the Search/Arrest warrant: IP logs, computers from the apartment, zip-cuffs identical to those used in the murder, the fact that it's clearly him on the surveillance photos, and an illegally possessed handgun hidden in a book safe.

Oh yeah, the gun? - ballistic match to the rounds that killed Brisman.

His Fiance continues to stand by him and say that he "couldn't hurt a fly."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday called on Craigslist to stop what he calls "pimping and prostitution in plain sight." He asked the site to immediately eliminate photographs in the "erotic services" section, hire staff to screen images and ads that violate the site's terms of service and fine those who violate those terms.

But Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, said criminals who use the site are virtually guaranteed to get caught because they leave electronic trails that are easily traced.

"So don't use Craigslist for crime unless you want to go to jail," he said Wednesday in an interview from San Francisco, where the company is based.

Buckmaster said there have been billions of interactions on Craigslist and added "compared to human society as a whole the risks of Craigslist are low, but they're not zero."

Buckmaster urged users to take precautions when meeting someone found through an online ad, such as choosing a public place or taking a friend along.

Another case of trying to legislate intelligence...

That's Officer 11001001 to you...Now you see me | Now you don't
"Relax, Bender; It was just a dream. There's no such thing as two." ~ Frysometimes my computer goes down on me